Political parties use cops to retain power

Political parties use cops to retain power: Former Union home secretary G K Pillai

NEW DELHI: Stating how badly police personnel are being used by politicians, former Union home secretary G K Pillai on Wednesday said that the police were an instrument to keep the ruling political party in power and every party had done so.

"Any ruling party, irrespective of whether it is CPI (M) or DMK or AIADMK or Congress...anybody...the police are an instrument to keep the political party in power. Every party has used this," Pillai said.

Speaking at a round table conference, Pillai, who retired as home secretary last June, said: "Police do a lot of activities which are outside the purview of law. You have property disputes... you have any number of issues... encroachment ...all these things are informally solved by the police in the country. Hundreds and thousands of cases are solved (by police). You don't go to the courts but they are solved by the police informally".

"Now what happens is in some cases the police did not do justice because the system has lacked justice. In some of the states, vested interests approach the police and therefore the police then become an arm of the vested interest to work the other way around...they are going to create more injustice...," Pillai was quoted as saying by PTI.

He was speaking a discussion during the conference on Spatial issues and Maoist insurgency in India, organized by the Observer Research Foundation.

The former home secretary also pointed out that IPS officers fear punishment of being transferred. He said: "You don't have the rule of law because no IPS officer is willing to... well I say, take the punishment of being transferred...Police training is a punishment posting. In the IPS, any of IPS officers sent as principal or so of police training college...is a punishment posting".

On the Naxal issue, Pillai said the "core of the problem" is spread in 70,000 sq km area in various states.

"I think the whole Maoist movement itself was accelerated in the last decade primarily because of this economic boom... because the number of MoUs, number of mining projects which came up in this area...suddenly come up...," he was quoted by PTI.

Pillai also said the issues in the Maoist-hit states bear a "history of exploitation", but government schemes are being launched and implemented to address these issues.